Rate My Professor Nick Parata

Nick Parata serves as a Laboratory Technician in the School of Physical Education, Sport and Exercise Sciences at the University of Otago. Affiliated with Ngāti Raukawa, Ngāti Toarangatira, and Te Atiawa, he holds degrees from the Centre of Indigenous Science and the School of Physical Education, Sport and Exercise Sciences at the University of Otago. His academic background includes an undergraduate degree that progressed to a postgraduate Honours project supervised by Dr. Chanel Phillips and Professor Jim Cotter. This research examined Kī o Rahi, a traditional Māori game, as a tool to assess components of fitness. Parata's experiences in Māori hockey, including representation in the New Zealand senior Māori and junior Tāne teams, underpin his interest in sport, physical activity, and indigenous wellbeing.

Parata has contributed to research through targeted internships, including a Ngā Pae o te Māramatanga-funded summer internship supervised by Associate Professor Jeremy Hapeta, which focused on flourishing mental wellbeing for rangatahi Māori. He also interned on the project 'PARS wars: a systematic review of "Play, Active Recreation and Sport" (PARS) in promoting mental health among Māori youth,' supervised by Dr. Jeremy Hapeta. His scholarly output includes co-authorship of 'Teaching Games for Whakawhānaukataka: Doubling Down on "Understanding" that Kī-o-Rahi is More Than Just a Game – Emphasising Whakawhānaukataka to Promote the Importance of Hauora (Wellbeing)' in Junctures (2024), and authorship of 'Tenei au te koronga: Growing Māori postgraduate research excellence' in MAI Journal (2023). Additionally, he presented 'Tama tu tama ora, tama noho tama mate - Play, Active Recreation and Sport (PARS) for flourishing Māori tamariki and rangatahi' at the SESNZ 2024 conference at the University of Otago. In 2017, Parata participated as a student in the Hands-On at Otago programme in the Department of Physiology.